The Crying Bride

Many years ago a wealthy man named Jacob married a beautiful woman. They lived happily for many years until his wife, Helen, began to age. Even though she was still considered a great beauty, crows feet formed at the corners of Helen’s eyes and strands of silver appeared in her long black hair.

Jacob started spending more and more time away from home and he stopped taking Helen out to dinner and to the opera since he was embarrassed to be seen with her. Eventually, Jacob met a beautiful woman, nearly fifteen years younger than his wife. Soon, he was spending all his time with his beautiful young lover, admiring how her face was unlined and there was no grey in her hair.

One day, Helen demanded to know where Jacob was spending all his time. He lied and said that he was working late nearly every day. But Jacob knew that he couldn’t keep lying to his wife for very long because Helen was bound to find out that he had another lover.

Jacob convinced his friend, who worked in a apothecary, to help poison Helen. One evening, Jacob invited his friend over for dinner, knowing that he was bringing the poison. When Helen wasn’t looking, Jacob poisoned her dinner. As they were sitting at the table, finishing their meal, Helen fell face-forward onto her plate. Dead.

Knowing that he couldn’t leave any witnesses alive, Jacob quickly killed his friend as well. Jacob took the two corpses and nailed them to opposite sides of a door. He then threw the door into the river.

Jacob was then free to start a new life with his young lover.

Before long, Helen’s ghost was haunting Jacob day and night. She would wander through the house, crying after her unfaithful husband. Helen’s ghost would slam doors, open windows and move papers.

Finally, in desperation, Jacob seized his sword and struck at Helen’s ghost. Only to discover that he had actually beheaded his young lover!

To this day, Helen’s ghost appears as a dark-haired woman dressed in white, like a bride. She has been known to follow unfaithful husbands home from their trysts and haunt them the way she haunted her unfaithful husband Jacob.

In case you haven’t figured it out by now, I LOVE having a campfire. There’s something about campfires that just build camping memories for me!

Campfires are great places to build family memories.

Telling stories around the campfire is a tradition. I’ve found, however, that many families don’t tell stories, because they’re just not sure how. Movies always show campers huddled around a campfire enjoying ghost stories, but that isn’t usually what happens in real life.

Remember, anyone can read a story, but, when a story is told, listeners (adults or children) feel a bond between the teller and themselves.

5 tips to get the stories flowing:

1. Decide on your audience

Will a group of adults really want to listen to a ghost story? Is a ghost story appropriate for the ages of the kids you’re taking camping? The idea of telling stories around a

campfire is just that — to tell stories. It’s not necessary to tell scary stories to have a good time.

2.. Know your story

If you’re telling a ghost story, know the climax and know the scariest parts. If you’re telling a funny story you need to know your punch line.

3. Have a set “story time”

When I was younger, we didn’t actually tell stories around the campfire — by the time we got back to camp, had dinner and a s’more, it was time for bed. Our story time was on the boat, when the fishing was slow and I was bored.

The key for an effective story time is a quiet setting where you’re not likely to be interrupted.

4. Invite others to share

If you’re going to have campfire stories on your next trip, you might want to let the rest of the family, or group, know you’re planning it. That way, they can bring stories of their own, or at the very least, they will make time for you to share your story with a minimum of groans!

Comfy chairs, bug repellant, and warm clothes will make campfire story time more enjoyable. S'mores don't hurt either!

5. Story time doesn’t have to be made-up stories

It’s a lot of fun to sit around and re-tell favorite stories (ghost, funny, or just tall-tales) but it isn’t a necessity. You can also gather around the campfire to re-tell your favorite family tales too. Like the time your son locked himself in the outhouse or when your daughter caught her first fish.

The real heart of campfire story time is to reconnect with your family or friends and to participate in the ancient human tradition of telling stories. Even if you’re just sharing family antidotes, campfire stories should be a part of your next trip.

I had so much fun on our vacation. The weather was to say the least, very strange. We got to Pine Grove Campground and it was just plain HOT the first week. And very windy. And the fishing was lousy. We explored back forest roads and saw lots of wild game, deer, elk, antelope, turkey, ducks, squirrels and ONE skunk. The second week, we experienced rain, hail, wind and very cold nights.

Sad to say we feel blessed though, because we did not have to breathe forest fire smoke or worry that our trip would be cut short due to the Hardy Fire or the Schulz Fire. We had explored Schulz Pass and Lockett Meadow and found both to be beautiful areas. Now it seems that the whole Lockett Meadow area is threatened by the fires. The Outdoor Princess is a bit put out because we had JUST taken photos of the campgrounds in that area for EatStayPlay.com and now she’s afraid she can’t put them up; the fire might have destroyed the campgrounds.

TheOutdoorPrincess doesn't know if she'll be able to update EatStayPlay.com with photos of Lockett Meadow Campground. The campground might be damaged in the fires.

As we leisurely ate dinner or just sat around talking, we got to watch lots of campers setting up their camps. It was wonderful seeing families together and young parents with their children making memories.

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that for that first dinner meal at the campground I bring it prepared. Setting up camp after a long drive is hard work even when everybody pitches in to help. It’s really no fun if somebody still has to cook a meal too.

On this trip I took a hearty albóndigas soup. Heated that up, set out a roll of Ritz crackers and we were happy! [I’ll post the recipe this Friday; it’s yummy!]

I also took several baggies filled with frozen orange smoothie mix. I let those thaw a little bit, poured that into a cup and called it dessert.

We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful state. I just wish everybody had the opportunity to visit northern Arizona. Looking up through aspen leaves with that brilliant blue sky behind those quivering leaves is a gift beyond compare.